_lshy

Hey all, I haven't had the time to take photos and honestly have mostly stopped thinking about my hair but wanted to give an update. These aren't as well shot as the photos I uploaded before but here's a bunch of photos of me in the wild. I'm very happy with the results, I have a better hairline now than I did before I started losing hair 🤣 I'm 32 but people have commented that I look 28. Before my transplant, which I got at around age 30, people thought I was in my late 30s! I take 5mg of oral minoxidil and 0.5mg of oral dutasteride every day to maintain it. One thing that was interesting is that I took a break from minoxidil because I was worried it was giving me dark under eye circles. 3 months after I stopped I had lost what looked like 30% of my hair. It didn't look nearly as thick or nearly as good. I'd say the transplant alone is a solid foundation, but the medication definitely completes the look and without it I would not be entirely happy with the result.

I put the pricing up earlier in the thread but I think it was between 8 and 10k including flights

Haha man, what a ride that was. I am glad I didn't proceed with Dr Knudsen though to his credit, he did refund me the $2k deposit I paid despite having no legal obligation to do so. As for FUE into the scar, considering that too. Feels like it's best done as a final touch once you know you're not going to have any more surgeries. @Etownone pretty cool use for beard hair. My neck beard hairs do nothing but get razor burn, would be nice if they could pay me back for all the years of strife 🤣 @Hairdom good luck on your journey my dude, glad to hear my experience has made treating MPB more accessible to you. You probably know to get on finasteride or dutasteride asap so you lock in what you've got. Also, don't forget to share your experience with the forum!

Hey all 7 months & 1 week I am currently in Bangkok, working remotely (I'm in software). Dropped by Dr Path's office for a follow up and they took some photos. Scar They measured the scar and it was 4mm - which I believe is actually not great and on the larger size. I don't know what is normal here but that seems a bit large. Hasson & Wong and Feller & Bloxham cite their benchmark at a 1mm scar but I have seen that even they have some wider outcomes (saw 15mm by F&B on here). I think younger people are more likely to have wider scars due to having more flexible scalps. I'm a bit disappointed not to have a scar that would give me more flexibility to wear my hair shorter but in the end, I look so much better after the surgery - even if the scar is wider than I'd hoped. If it's super noticeable I might consider SMP or maybe a follow up surgery to fill in my crown a bit and fix up the scar. Results Other than a larger than desirable scar, the results are incredible so far. I still have 5 months until I hit the 12 month mark. I don't know for sure, but I assume things slow down in terms of gains from here - so I shouldn't expect much more. Here you can see a before/after And the full gallery

Hey all, will provide an update shortly Before committing to travelling abroad for the hair transplant I spent a lot of time researching local clinics. I had consultations with Gro, Clown Crown Clinic, Knudsen and Dr Chan. Crown Clinic was a complete joke, don't even bother. The nurses perform the surgical extractions. This is legal in Australia, that beauticians with a 2 year diploma can conduct surgical procedures. Knudsen has alright results on his website, not the best quality photos and ultimately didn't give me enough information to feel confident in the results. He quoted me 1500 grafts which might have been alright, Dr Path thought 2500 grafts would be better for the area covered (he uses a standard measurement based on area). Knudsen has a reputation for being more conservative with grafts. I can't comment on if I would have been just as happy with the results from Knudsen, his service also would have cost more. Dr Chan has some decent results on his website but there aren't a lot of his cases out there and some bad reviews on RealMe. He also only offers FUE. Gro put in more effort but they were not experts and yet were charging expert rates. They have a fairly active Instagram presence which I appreciate but when I consulted with them I wasn't able to speak to the surgeon (unlike other, more professional, clinics). Instead I spoke to a salesperson/representative who told me they performed all kinds of cosmetic procedures, including hair transplants. They fixated on the "DHI method" sales pitch, which is completely irrelevant as the graft insertion technique is only one part of the surgery also quoting me in "hairs transplanted" rather than grafts - which is a red flag. Further, surgical teams who can use tweezers to insert grafts are higher skilled and DHI pens tend to be a crutch for surgical teams with less experience. The idea is that it's a DHI pen has a cartridge that holds a graft. The pen is used to both create the insertion site and also deposit the graft. For contrast, Dr Path's process involved two passes. First pass he went over my head creating graft insertion sites (holes) with a pen. Second pass the technicians filled the holes with grafts via tweezers. Directionality is guaranteed in the first pass. Summary Overall I just felt there wasn't the visibly demonstrable skills within Australia to give me the confidence to commit to a life changing surgery. At the end of the day nobody has your back on this procedure. There are no warranties, there are no government regulations to protect you, the responsibility is on you to ensure that you are informed well enough to not come away looking terrible. I felt there just wasn't enough info, cases, videos, reports, reviews on Australian practices. I got to a point where I convinced myself there was enough info and gave into booking with Knudsen (later cancelling the procedure). Knudsen refunded the booking despite not having any legal obligation to do so - which I respected immensely. Just a quick search in other regions, USA, Europe, Asia and the top clinics have hundreds of cases with videos, photos, etc. Australian surgeons just don't post anywhere near the content we see overseas clinics post and it's a damn shame.

Side profile looks fantastic! Looking forward to seeing your results over the coming months

I had my surgery with Dr Path in Thailand, he gave me a note to take back to Australia with me which described how to remove the stitches. I got my GP to remove the stitches and it all worked out. It was free for me, but bare in mind that Australia has free healthcare

5 Months I cannot believe how much better I look and feel with a decent hairline. Before getting the hair transplant, I would use hairspray to cement a forward comb-over - I even had a fear of wind 😅Whenever I would look in the mirror, the first place my eyes would fixate on is my temples. It's hard to put into words the feeling I get when I look in the mirror now. I go to gym and I am shocked every time I see myself. It feels like a decent hairline synergises so well with my efforts to improve aesthetics anywhere else. Can you believe that I was 27 on the left and 30 on the right? So here's my progress at 5 months, haven't had a haircut in a month Gallery Link And a side profile comparison from the week before the surgery against today

I'm really glad that before I went for the surgery I spent a year messing around with hair systems. Originally I didn't even know that temporal peaks were a thing. Obviously I could see them in other people but I never mentally registered them as a target for restoration. After trying lots of different hair systems and failing to understand why they never looked right, I eventually realised it was because my temporal peaks had receded and it wasn't possible to glue hair to the sides of my head. I actually made mock ups of my temporal peaks using cut-offs from hair systems to see what it would look like and that confirmed it for me - either I go bald or I get surgery. When speaking with Dr Path I emphasised asking for temporal point restoration. Yes, he offered me both and even combined. He said that sometimes with FUT alone, though you get high graft count yield, you might not get the individual grafts you need (like a hairline needs single grafts) so a combined extraction might be worthwhile to maximise the cosmetic outcome as the surgeon can pick graft follicle counts. I told him to do whatever he needed to do for the best outcome. 4.5 months Easter Update Got a few close ups under some directly overhead (piercing) lighting. It's pretty crazy how well it's blending in. The temporal peaks are a bit darker than my native hairs and I suspect the density of the peaks is actually higher than my native hair density. The scar is still red and you can see the colour with this length of hair, if you shine a flashlight on it. It's not visible in normal lighting conditions. Gallery Link

Haha nah nah, thank you for following along and sharing in my excitement 🙏

Month 4 Exactly 121 days since surgery I got an ambitiously short haircut today to see how short I can go before the scar is visible and I certainly found that point. I don't really mind it showing, it'll be hidden in a week or two as my hair grows out. I think with a slightly lower fade it wouldn't be visible at all. I discovered that my hair looks most natural when it's longer so I lost a few points of hair-confidence there but overall I am extremely pleased with the growth. A little bit bummed because it's been looking great longer and I wanted to share that but I'll do that in the next update. Apparently from month 4 things start ramping up. I cannot wait for my peaks to start filling out! Side profile. Temporal points are really starting to blend in. I'm really impressed by their density and naturalness Gallery of peaks Gallery of scar

Thanks everyone. Update coming in the next few days - I cannot believe how it looks. I have never felt so good about my hair in my entire life 🤣

Hey @cfmhc my thread was referenced above. Early on in my search for a surgeon I was really not keen to leave Australia, or even my state. I figured Australia is a developed country and there are skilled doctors here. I even pulled the trigger an booked with Knudsen before cancelling my booking - he was nice enough to refund my deposit though he was not obligated to. I have gone to every clinic in Sydney and dug up literally every bit of information on the internet about Dr Knudsen and Dr Vikram. Their published results range from average to really poor. The justification for the lack of published cases is that they say it's unethical to publish their results on the internet. Whether you'd have a good or bad experience with them is unclear - but it's not worth the risk. Dr Vikram is a better communicator and he has a couple of posts on this forum that don't look terrible - but it's not worth the risk. I ended up going against what I wanted to do and flew to Thailand for my surgery. I just booked it and did it. 8 hour flight, stayed a few days, went home (wish I'd stayed longer though). Yes it was a hassle but in the end you can't fake quality. It's frustrating but no amount of money you spend in Australia or New Zealand will guarantee you the result that you will get with surgeons who publish their work, have been in practice for over a decade and handle multiple clients a day. With Knudsen and co, there is no high quality imagery of their work and their communication is poor. Honestly, you might be fine but without being able to see what to expect, you're rolling the dice. Good resource: https://youtu.be/n9XjdqVg5bA?t=291 When I did my consultation with Knudsen, he rushed through showing me his previous cases - almost rolling his eyes and complaining that I didn't take him at his word.

Hey all, 3 Months and 1.5 Weeks (time moves so slowly) Finally got a haircut almost 2 weeks after I planned to get one, haha but here is a few photos straight after the barber. Gallery Link Side profile look so much better, what the heck

Vibe check - how's this coming along. Anyone on the pulse got something interesting to share?